Pat Riley, a member of the famous Rupp’s Runts, played in the 1966 National Championship game. Whiile in the NBA he played on one NBA Championship team (L.A. Lakers) and coached 5 NBA Championship teams (the 80s Showtime Lakers and the 2006 Miami Heat). The man was a coaching genius who could get multiple star caliber players to mesh into a cohesive team and win. No easy feat. Especially in todays game. He, also, took the ’94 Knicks to the Championship game but came up short that year. No one has been able to do much with the Knicks since.Coach Riley joins his mentor and Coach–Adolph Rupp–in the Hall of Fame as well as NBA greats like Red Auerbach and other legendary NCAA coaches such as John Wooden.
Congrats Coach Riley on a great honor and an incredible and exemplary career.
This is an excellent article on Coach Riley by Rick Bozich of the Louisville Courier Journal. (article here)
“I wish that coach (Adolph) Rupp, Harry Lancaster, Joe B. Hall, Mr. (Bill) Keightley and Louie (Dampier), Larry (Conley), Thad (Jaracz) and Tommy (Kron), God bless him, could be here to share this moment with me because the University of Kentucky was a special time in my life,” Riley said.
Indeed it was. Riley arrived at UK in 1963 from Schenectady, N.Y. He credited his basketball development to all 16 of his coaches, starting with his first coach — his father, Leon, a minor league baseball player.
At UK, Riley said he was assigned to share a room with Dampier, another freshman, from Southport, Ind. Riley had not begun to slick back his hair, but he said when he pulled out his blue-suede shoes and fancy clothes, the more conservative Dampier flinched.
Said Riley: “Louie had to be thinking, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me! I’ve got to live with this guy the next four years?’ “
I guess the important thing to do is follow my dad’s advice. Yikes, did I really just say that? But, seriously though, father knows best and he told me to love what you do and it won’t feel like work.
Nuxhall and Keightley followed those words until they left this world. And while it is sad to think that two legends in their own rights are gone, hopefully we can learn from the lives they led.
Jenny Elder Richmond Register
The Keightley family requests memorial donations be made to:
The Bill Keightley “Mr. Wildcat” Basketball Managers Scholarship Fund
UK Office of Development
100 Sturgill Development Buildings
Lexington, KY 40506-0015.
Tibetans and their supporters are on the move throughout the free world. It’s the perfect time to move against the communist human rights violating monolith that is China.
China . The Host of the 2008 Summer Olympics. It’s sacrilege. The Olympics are supposed to be symbolic of peace,cooperation and harmony among nations. Amongst peoples. China, the megalithic Communist Monster. China the world devourer. China of Tienanmen Square fame–Tanks to squash a student protest. China who allowed millions to perish so that a few well fed maniacal murderers could retain power. China. Led for nearly 3 decades by Mao Zedong. The greatest mass murderer to walk the earth. The man who oversaw the murder of 70 Million Chinese so that he could frighten the rest into obeisance. Mao Zedong.
In 1950, China invaded Tibet. Extending the Maoist carnage and murder spree into the worlds most peaceful province. China rolled into Tibet and commenced to torturing and murdering Monks and ordinary citizens in the thousands and hundreds of thousands.
Why did Mao want Tibet? What was his claim?
It was simply a matter of Chinese prestige. Mao thought that all of the peoples of the area should have the opportunity to be murdered in his evil grasp and under his failed leadership.
In 1246, a Mongolian annexed Tibet into the greater Mongolian Empire. That Mongol Ruler was Khubalai Khan. Great Grandson of Genghis Khan. Khubalai Khan eventually conquered and united what we know today as China. This is the first instance in history of a united China. Khubalai founded the Yuan Dynasty. This is considered the first Dynasty of modern China. The China that we know today.
The China we know today was created by a Mongolian. Don’t tell the Chinese this. For some reason, it angers them. They see the Mongols as a primitive people. But it took a Mongol Emperor to bring China together. it was a Mongol Emperor who first brought Tibet into the Chinese sphere of influence.
China’s claim to Tibet is as ridiculous as a Mongolian claim to China.
China has brought herself these troubles. The Chinese want to join the Global scene as a full and respected partner. Yet, they still want to carry on as belligerent neighbors. Taiwan is another example of Chinese over-reaching and trouble making. Taiwan is a separate nation. Yet, China continues to want to claim it as part of mainland China. China wants a peaceful partnership with the free world. BUT they don’t want to be held to the standard of peaceful nations. China wants to make money off the West even as they terrify and cow their own citizens. Even as they deny many of their citizens basic human rights.
The Taiwanese have built a country based on capitalism and free markets. It’s people were thriving even as Mao was murdering millions in his failed Cultural experiments (revolutions). Yet, China demands the right to rule over the island nation as if China were the author of Taiwan’s successes.
Now that the Olympics have given the enemies of China a world wide forum, expect the Tibetans and other groups to surface. As the Olympics draw closer, it will be more and more difficult for China and the governments of the participating nations to ignore their demands.
Tibet has international support. I’m interested to see where the pressure on China leads. Will China react as they have in the past with violence and severe punishments? Will they cave to international pressure? Will China be forced to stop murdering innocent folks for the crime of desiring freedom and liberty? Will the world stand up and be counted? Or will the same eyes which refused to see the genocide in Darfur be willfully blind still?
Will Tibet finally gain their independence or at least autonomy? Or will Chinese hypocrisy and murder be rewarded yet again by it’s eager accomplices in the West?
Of course, we all want our cheap electronics, tennis shoes and t-shirts from Walmart via cheap Chinese labor. Therefore, the chances of China being held to any real standard of human rights is slim to non-existant. It’s the same with oil. We want our cheap products. And Hell! We’re free. We have our liberty. Why should anyone care about those damn Chinese or Tibetans? Or anyone else for that matter.
I’ve met a few Tibetans along the path of my life. They have always been nice, peaceful people. Exactly what you would expect. As if each Tibetan were an emissary of the Dalai Lama himself. Poised. Perfectly composed. Even when the subject of the mighty Dragon arose.
